L'ossessa (1974)

Director:

Mario Gariazzo

Writers:

Mario Gariazzo (story)
Ambrogio Molteni (screenplay)

Release Date:

December 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Ravished! Violated! Possessed by Satan!

Plot:

The story in this horror movie revolves around a strange religious icon and the demonic sexual influence it exerts on a young art student...

Plot Keywords:

Statue | Student | Art | Convent | Supernatural

Cast

Stella Carnacina	...	Danila
Chris Avram	...	Mario
Lucretia Love	...	Luisa
Ivan Rassimov	...	Satan
Gabriele Tinti	...	Luisa's lover
Luigi Pistilli	...	Father Xeno
Gianrico Tondinelli	...	Carlo
Umberto Raho	...	Psychiatrist
Giuseppe Addobbati
Piero Gerlini	...	Rev. Antonio
Maria Teresa Piaggio
Edoardo Toniolo
Luigi Antonio Guerra
Giovanni Di Benedetto		(as Gianni De Benedetto)
Elisa Mantellini

Also Known As:

Enter the Devil
The Devil Obsession
The Eerie Midnight Horror Show
The Sexorcist
The Tormented

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 | USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Tiberia Film Internacionale

Trivia:

Based on a true story.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Terror on Tape (1983)

Satan is one horny devil!

Out of the handful of alternative titles in English, "The Sexorcist" is definitely the most appropriate one, since this is basically just a shameless rip off of William Friedkin's classic horror film in which they replaced 13-year-old Linda Blair with the 19-year-old Stella Carnacina only so that she could gratuitously show her ravishing naked body. I'm not sure what exactly Satan tries to accomplish here, but he exclusively seems to possess the young girl to play sexual tricks on her! Poor Danila masturbates around the clock and tries to seduce priests and even her own father into having sex with her. The young girl is introduced as a smart and ambitious theology-student with an odd-looking boyfriend (driving a stupid yellow car) and loving, albeit adulterous parents. When she takes a peculiar crucifix home to renovate, the ancient relic comes to life and no less than Satan himself (played by Ivan Rassimov of "Jungle Holocaust" and "Planet of the Vampires") starts to torment her. The overlong masturbation sessions and some bizarre nightmare sequences cover about three quarters of the movie, and then finally director Mario Garriazzo begins with the actual exorcism. That final segment is even more embarrassing and amateurish! The priests don't really do anything apart from saying some vague prayers but, somehow, Danila seems cured all of a sudden. There isn't much gore, the dialogues are horrible and the producers seem to compensate every little flaw by adding more sleaze! This is one of the strangest Italian exploitation efforts of the seventies (why the hell are they referring to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"?), but definitely not one of the best. If you fancy clones of "The Exorcist", I recommend "Demon Witch Child", "Beyond the Door" and "The Antichrist".